Look up.

Whenever the term “social media” comes up, the poem Look Up by Gary Turk resonates in my head. He thoroughly express his opinion through vivid imagery in mournful tone, beautifully execute the poem in the video. His simple message is “Look up from your phone, shut down the display, take in your surroundings and make the most of today”. The poem outlines the issues and solutions, tells people to stop believing in false inclusions and step away from delusions. It reminds the world of the “savagery” advanced technologies has brought and the impact on future generations.  The savagery the social media creates is cyber bullying on common apps like Yik Yak, Twitter and even text messaging. These programs make socializing more convenient but they also make their users vulnerable to bullying. Do the pros outweigh the cons?

Thanks to social media sites such as Facebook, Skype, and Twitter, family members and friends who live far apart can now communicate to each other. To give an instance, during the Afghanistan war, deployed U.S. soldiers who were stationed in the Middle East were able to stay in touch with their relatives and friends using via Skype. Being able to see the faces of their relatives and hear their soothing voice give the soldiers morale to fight their adversaries, boost their confidence and provide them with the comforts that war does not offer. Statistics have shown that in the United States, 70% of adults use social media to communicate with their friends and families and 57% of teenagers have reported that social media sites like Omegle help them meet new friends. Social media strengthen bonds between one person through another regardless of where they are and this function of the applications is not only convenient but it’s worth a king’s ransom.

Another pro of social media is the better quality of life. The support of the community is always there on the internet, social media sites such as LinkedIn and Yahoo! find solutions for those who are in a predicament. LinkedIn compile profiles of employees from various parts of the nation to make recruiters’ life much easier when it comes to employing workers. As an example: Joe, aged 48, is an app developer of 30 years. He is unemployed because his companies bankrupted, so he’s looking for a new job. He signed up with LinkedIn to create a profile. Since 89% of job recruiters have reportedly gone to LinkedIn to look for employees to hire, Joe will be called up for a job interview soon because of his solid profile on LinkedIn. Without the website, Joe might not be questioned by any company at all or it might take them years to realize Joe even exists. Without social media, he becomes the Silent Sam in business and that will expose him to the harsh realities of the “dog eat dog” world. Social media does not just help Joe secure a new job but also supports him in time of sorrow. Yahoo! is a site that he should look for support. Joe, a jobless, lonely and depressed man with only a few friends, may ponder “How do I get out of this?” Yahoo! community can help him out with this question. He may ask questions such as “How to find a job?” or “What to do when you’re depressed?”. Whatever the question may be, there are people out in this community who want to help someone like Joe. This maybe because they’ve had the same experience or is an expert at giving people advice. The community, with empathy, might give Joe advice like “Go see a therapist” or “Find a hobby to do to keep yourself distracted”. After reading mollifying words, Joe should be pacified. Yahoo! community and other socializing apps like LinkedIn can alleviate a person’s quality of life. It can change a suicidal gloomy person to an enthusiastic, ardent toddler. It can change a lonely, destitute app developer to a famous, vastly wealthy billionaire. With social media, there are endless possibilities of how the support of others can light up a person’s life. It can be a ray of sunshine to any person’s rainbow.

Physical pain goes away, it fades away with time but what about emotional pain? Does emotional pain get worse with the advocacy of the Network Satan? Social media is the Satan of the “real savage” world and cyber bullying is its Lucifer. So, HOW does this evil manifest our world? Simple, it furtively seeps through our skin, crawls through our brains like parasites and turn those with malevolent minds into a duplicate of infamous virus: Hitler, Bin Laden or Saddam Hussein. Those intact with parasites are bound to do harm to others; slash their sacks of self-esteem with the power of Satan. Once evil exists, it spreads like hellish fire and it can’t be watered down easily; locusts of plague can’t be easily neutralized. Socializing on the internet leaves an open space for this to occur and when it occurs, a forest for wild fire to spread that even Smokey Bear will be too obese to catch up. To further elaborate, let’s take a look at a scenario. Stephen, a new kid in town who acts WAY TOO COOL for his AGE, has trouble finding new friends because of his unique personality. To make matter even worse, he was made fun by many strangers for his character. Now, since the Internet is ubiquitous, it can be difficult to track down the Devil. It’s kind of like the protagonist in GTA in cheat mode. He can commit as many crimes as he wants and the cops can’t find him because of all the incompetent sloths that play him. Students at school are able to poke fun at Stephen via an anonymous app like Yik Yak. A bully can post a hurtful message such as “Stephen, you suck” or “Stephen, you look like a dork and your haircut looks stupid” and he won’t even get in trouble because the app does not show usernames or leave any clue behind. Anonymity leaves no trace for Sherlock Holmes to find. Once a post is put up, other parasitic malicious virus will comment and the show goes on all night. How do adults deal with this new form of evil? They don’t, they just inform the younger generation about it. They’ve enumerated a list of solutions, hoping for that these problems would come to conclusions. We live in a world of self-promotion where we all share our best bits but ignore the emotion. This does not change if social media still exists, the majority needs to stand up on the platform and confess their sin and circle around to help out their kin. A body can catch a body coming through the rye, but none can when Satan is nearby. This malicious media should be eradicated before the fish in our rivers are contaminated. The emotional pain in the patients that have been victimized can be perennial and they’ll be paralyzed. Physical pain fades away but this world is foul but fair as foul is fair. Online bullying, social media assists and with bullies victims turn to mists.

Face to face communication is another disease that can hardly be fought but all you need, really, is a simple thought. Who else should be blame for earth being lame– but social media people play as a game. These para”sites” , they must step away and take in their surroundings to make the most of the day. Technology reduces social interaction and creates a mind-numbing distraction. People are surrounded by children who since they were born have been watching us acting like robots and think it’s the norm. Whenever people feel lonely, they check sites like Facebook or Instagram and cuddle with it until they’re cozy. Sociable citizens have become pariahs to one another it no longer satisfies to speak to others and look into someone’s eyes. Be there as a shadow when there’s a crying child as he is pulled up by a hand and start to smile. Live life as a transcendentalist, no one here should is socialist. Give life some attention without looking down at some invention. Don’t be a fraction, become a faction, create an interaction with attraction with no inaction don’t be a dissatisfaction, Captain Action. 

As a human being, he/she is responsible for their own actions. The mind is strong, it can resist anything even bacteria so resilient that make the mind less brilliant. The continents have become full with robots that let the machines take over using simple triggers encrypted in the phones. Soldiers, don’t let someone control the brain, soldiers are men not machines, don’t let those parasites manipulate you or tell you what to do, how to act and how to feel. No one needs to go out in the cold to watch the truth unfold but once that light flicker the whole world will shiver. Overall, the benefits of social media outweighs the atrocities it created, creates and will create. Psychologically speaking, the mechanism with no brains, no emotions like it’s just a scrap metal that will put fear into the human minds; the minds that are so resilient that it becomes more brilliant. Psychologically speaking, the organism with a brain, full of emotions, with flesh on the bones will be feared by the device it has created. Rain of terror will come and pain will chain, the robots will reign if someone does not change. No restrictions can be put upon this addiction, an action is a step to resolution. An action to alter oneself, to change day after day, to look in a different angle, to look in a new direction; the direction the eyes look at when there’s a connection. The so-called savagery will continue, the so-called slavery will prevail if WE don’t change then the world will fail in jails whacking our tails waiting for bails but crawl like snails because robots are gales with veils scratching US quails with nails.